The Riders of Power
by Eastonia
Summary: AKA why Hiccup has even less free time than he would have, why Hiccup can't get involved in clubs or societies. Also why Astrid is glad she's a Haddock Scholar (so much more freedom). AKA why Astrid's remnant of a social life disappeared. AKA medical school eats your life, superhero-ing eats your life. WHY PUT THEM TOGETHER? (AKA the Power Rangers AU none asked for)
1. Drabbles about Hiccup and zord Toothless

**AN:** **So my brain farted. And I figured that I might as well upload this (after running this by one of my frequent reviewers). I'm working on the next chapter for Star Wars The Shift!Verse rewrite, but since it's Hiccup's birthday (one of the few he will get)... I figured I'll upload this crazy AU.**

 **I'll explain some more over at the side!tumblr I set up for this fic. It's PRHTTYD dot tumblr dot com**

 **Basically it's a crossover of Power Rangers and HTTYD. I'll upload my explanation why I'm crossing them over tomorrow, I have too much work to do today. I hope you guys enjoy this crazy brainfart. (Seriously, my brain latches on to Power Ranger AUs for Fandoms and I have to get them on document to get it to** ** _stop_** **.)**

* * *

 **A series of drabbles about Hiccup and zord!Toothless**

 **Or**

 **Seven Easy Steps (Yeah Right) to Become a Power Ranger.**

* * *

1\. Sell-out

Helsinki 'Hiccup' Horace Haddock was kind of, maybe, not really, possibly a sell-out.

Maybe.

Or maybe the pressure had finally gotten to him after all this time. Or maybe he finally learnt why his Dad was terrified of him being out during a 'dragon'-attack.

His mother had died during one. Not dead as in 'Oh no! They carried her off!' She was dead as in – that little urn on their mantle? Yup that's her. His father, Stewart 'Stoick' Haddock was still trying to bring himself to bury the urn. It would be kind  
of sweet if it wasn't so sad. (He still talked to it – Hiccup overheard the one-sided conversations sometimes).

And then Uncle Gilbert 'Gobber' Smith became a double amputee.

It happened during one of the Haddock Rescue Services operations, carried out in tandem while the armed forces focused on the mechanical beasts. Hiccup had planned on bringing out one of his inventions. Maybe the one that captures the dragons – if they  
could reverse engineer it! Think about it!

Hiccup had planned on proving himself able of being a field agent. Not be the first heir to Haddock Industries to have to operate the Haddock Rescue Services from behind a desk.

Didn't really matter now. Hiccup was pretty sure that he had found his place. Medical school was never someplace he thought that he'd end up but here he is. _And_ he knew where he was going. Prosthetics were getting better all the time, and he fully  
intended to restore his favourite Uncle's limbs to him (maybe even modify them to be _better_ ). But before he could get _building_ prosthetics he had to learn _about_ prosthetics. And to _make_ the prosthetics he wanted to make,  
he had to first _know_ how they matched up with the human body. Ergo - medicine.

It helped that the University of Berk was one of the best in the country for medicine (and that because of all of the attacks (and before the attacks, the various natural disasters), the hospitals were great at trauma treatment and rehabilitation).

And it wasn't like he had much of a life before anyway. (Any and all social life before medicine is _eaten_ by medicine).

* * *

2\. Competition

Yes, it was only first year (there's no such thing as _only_ in medicine). But Hiccup had to start bulking up his CV for his Foundation years already. Yes, the SJTs (Situational Judgement Test) would make up the majority of his score, but that was  
for fifth year.

He was one of the lucky ones. Unlike the others, he actually _knew_ what he wanted to get into.

So, bulking out his CV…

Sports teams were not his thing (not that he was _bad_ at sports, especially after that massive, all-too-surprising growth spurt – but that first time that he could look _down_ at Snotlout though!), so that was a no go. Research assistance was  
usually handed straight to Second and Third Years, they were the ones that were frantically trying to start the bulking-out-CV process (being a Fresher he was not given priority). And since he wasn't assisting any research, he couldn't write and therefore  
couldn't publish any papers.

Which left volunteering (which, practically everyone on Berk _did_ anyways) and contests. It was great that it didn't actually matter what the contest was about, just that he participated in one.

It was also great that he could bust out his old engineering/mechanic tools.

It just so happened that this particular competition was about medieval warfare. A short presentation and a demonstration of the workings of the created project. (Maybe Hiccup was cheating a little but he technically _wasn't_.) It just so happened  
that one of Hiccups old inventions was, essentially a highly modified trebuchet. All he needed to do was strip it to its skeleton (a job that would take maybe half a weekend day), record a demonstration of its use and BAM the practical portion of  
his submission done.

He just wasn't expecting a dragon attack when he was recording his demonstration. Also, he was absolutely not expecting the boulder to hit one of the giant mechanical beasts. And he was definitely not expecting it to crash into the protected forests of  
Berk (owned and up kept by Haddock Industries – and open to the public during the summer, open to the sustainable hunting society during the autumn and winter).

* * *

3\. Conspicuous

The mechanical dragon was huge (and night-black, and had weirdly glowing green eyes).

As in, how the heck are the helicopters missing the thing from the sky?

Okay, so maybe it was because dragons never ventured this far into the island. Berk had been successfully keeping the dragons at bay from the rest of the Archipelago for _decades_ now. (No we are not evacuating, we run on stubbornness – not glucose  
and the other essential nutrients gained from the intake of food). Berk also happened to be a coastal city, with the more important buildings located _far_ away from beach and sea and it's not because there used to be tsunamis hitting the city  
every now and then – if the dragon attacks had a bright side…)

Hiccup was lucky. His ancestors had apparently preferred mountainous grandeur over splendid oceanic views. The Haddock family estate and grounds wereactually located around fifteen minutes from the UoB's Medical Faculty (thank goodness for forward  
planning doctors insisting the main training hospital and the medical school (which the University of Berk actually _expanded_ from) being built inland. Also, thank goodness once again to the early Haddocks for going 'yeah, we'll donate you the  
land to do it).

Still, it was ridiculous. Hiccup now had a _dragon_ in what essentially was his backyard (that was pretty much shared with the public three out of four seasons).

Another thing. Why didn't it just get up and fly away? Better yet, why had it not attempted to kill him yet? That's what dragons were supposed to do after all (even the tiny, human-sized ones). Instead, it was warily watching him in a puzzled manner.

Hiccup gathered up his courage and moved slowly up to it. His hand briefly touched it. The night-black dragon gained extensive glowing red detailing and his head hurt.

The dragon startled and roared at him before flying jerkily away. (Strange, both the fins on his tail were black, one tailfin had turned _red_ ).

* * *

4\. Mind reader

There was a tutorial today and Hiccup had forgotten to do it.

To be fair, he couldn't remember much after the dragon encounter. In fact, he woke up in his bed this morning not knowing exactly how he got there. And he somehow had to answer the question for this histology practical that he did not have the time to  
review.

On top of that, the entire section of the class was just staring at him, waiting for him to answer (he had the worst luck, he was stretching – not raising his hand). AND _Astrid_ , composed, not-normally-in-his-section-but-because-of-issues _Astrid_ was  
sitting across him, eyebrow raised.

How did you identify the separate layers of the epidermis anyway?

Then a disembodied voice floated into his mind (it had kind of an oh-my-goodness-why-didn't-you-do-the-work-you-have-no-excuse tone to it).

"Uhhhh… The germ layer is stratum basale, it's the single row of cells sitting on the basement membrane separating the dermis from the epidermis. We can tell the difference between those and the melanocytes by looking for production of keratin granules.  
Next is stratum spinosum. We can tell the difference between these layers by looking for the artefactual pulling away of the cells, except for the points of the desmosomes. Then stratum granulosum, differentiated by the keratohylain granules. Then  
stratum lucidum (but it doesn't really show up unless we have an extremely good slide) and finally stratum corneum (which are basically the last layers of living cells before they become too full of keratin and die)."

The professor looked satisfied.

Astrid looked curious.

Then the practical was over and the class rushed out to the various café's and cafeteria's around campus. Expect Astrid hung back and reached up (two years and ten months on from his sixteen year old growth spurt, and he was still not used to being _tall_ )  
to grab his shoulder.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey, As-, hi, hey, hi Astrid." Hiccup stuttered out in surprise.

"Gotta get rid for that stutter for the OSCEs. Anyway, good job there. You basically said what I was thinking word for word."

"T-th-thank you?"

She gave him another thump and walked off. (Time was ticking on the precious hour of lunch they had). That was when he realised, that disembodied voice earlier? It was Astrid.

* * *

5\. Bonds

It was five in the afternoon. He was dead tired from the day. He had assignments to do. He really needed a nap.

He was trudging through the woods of his family grounds to the site of the dragon crash.

Why?

Well, evidently the dragon had done _something_ to him. After that first thought (which was admittedly quite face-saving) floated through his head, he had been hearing things _all day_. And he did not need to know about what that one guy was  
going to do for his girlfriend (poor thing was nervous enough about the ring in his pocket). Some things were supposed to remain _private_.

So he was going to get to the bottom of this.

By finding a dragon. (How has his life come to this?)

...

The dragon definitely looked different. Its night-black body-fuselage (what?) had now developed the glowing red detailing that he remembered from their last encounter.

"Well, at least I'm completely crazy" Hiccup breathed out shakily, staring at the _dragon_.

[No, just somewhat.] Came the weird indescribable (okay, not totally, it was distinctly _male_ ) not-sound.

Hiccup stuttered out. "That was in my head. How is it in my head? You weren't actually making a sound were you?"

There were mechanical sounds of gears and pistons whirling and then the dragon cocked his head to one side. (It was strangely cute).

[Strange human. I didn't make a sound. And why would I be in your head?] Same the sassy male tone again.

"I don't know, you tell me! I only started hearing thoughts after I met you!" Hiccup yelled (perhaps a little stupidly) at the mechanical beast.

[Wait – you can hear my private computations?]

"Private computations?"

The beast bounced around excitedly. The formerly, glaring green eyes opened up wide.

[Tell me! Tell me! I'm thinking of the sequential number…]

"Four."

[Fish are…]

"Food, not friends… wait isn't that quote supposed to be backwards?"

[I am a pretty little princess.]

"I am a… I'm not going to continue that. Wait, no, I'm here because you need to _turn this off_!"

[I don't know how to.]

"What?"

[I didn't even know that this could happen if a human touched me.]

"What?"

[In fact, it's been a really long time since I could compute for myself.]

"What?!"

[That boulder crashing into my navigational systems was the best thing that happened to me.]

"Wait, what?!"

The dragon looked at him and lay down. There was a sizeable dent the size of the boulder his trebuchet threw in what would be the upper occipital are of the skull on a human.

[I can't really hear _her_ anymore. But it took some time for me to reboot my autonomous function. If that thing that knocked me out of the sky did not take out my navigational systems then I would have flown back and stayed under _her_ control.]

"Her?"

[ _She_ calls herself a queen, but _she's_ not. _She's_ the thing I think I'm supposed to fight, but the timing was all off and then we were under _her_ control.]

"What are you anyway? I mean we call you dragons…"

[Not too far off the mark. We are dragonzords. I'm a Night Fury.]

"I thought all dragons had fangs."

[I do have fangs!]

Hiccup (not noticing that he had, at some point during the conversation settled himself down next to the giant mech) patted the Night Fury rather condescendingly.

"Whatever you say… Toothless."

[I'll show you 'Toothless'!]

Needless to say it was the start of a beautiful friendship and the death of whatever that could have been left of Hiccup's social life after choosing to read medicine.

* * *

6\. Repairs

[I don't know about this Hiccup.]

"Well, stop yapping and let me do my work!"

[I know you are set on getting me to fly again but,]

"Look, yes I haven't done this in almost four-five years but riding bicycles and all that."

[I don't know, what if I fall back under _her_?]

"You know I won't let that happen bud."

It had been a couple of weeks since Hiccup met Toothless. Every evening he took his textbooks and notes, and huge piles of scrap metal left over from when he was fourteen-fifteen (had it really been five-four years since he fiddled with the _heavy_ tools?),  
packed it into onto the spare Park Ranger's pickup that nobody used and got to work hammering out the dent-slash-reinforcing that spot (made no sense that the metal over there had corroded enough for the boulder to actually do damage. Then again the  
navigation systems was located awfully close to the outer layer of the dragonzord's fuselage).

Hiccup was a pretty sad case. You see, he didn't live on campus – he took a fifteen (thirty if there was a jam) minute commute to the medical school. Also, he basically ignored Fresher's Week so while other medics still had something of a social life  
(and random cliques), he didn't have any clubs or societies. He just had his textbooks. And his notes.

Maybe that's why Stoick seemed so happy and relieved that Hiccup was basically heading out every night – to be fair, it was _winter_ , it was already dark out when Hiccup's lectures ended. (He had not been outside in a while. Awkward secondary and  
sixth form days do not a social butterfly make).

He probably would not be happy that the friend was a _dragon_ – well, a _dragonzord_ – then. Maybe.

Who knew really? His Dad had weirdly random times of reasonability. _If_ he could actually get his father to listen to him. (Stoick may or may not have selective hearing, but the one time he heard what his son had to say – a week after Gobber had  
convinced him to put Hiccup into the Junior Rescue Scouts with the other Berk teens – was directly after Gobber lost two limbs ("Dad, I don't think I want to fight dragons anymore, not when they could use me elsewhere."). They sat down and talked,  
hashed it out – and Hiccup hit upon maybe looking into how prosthetics work. And then from there realising that he had no clue how the human body worked and you _needed_ that when making prosthetics).

But that was a blue moon event really, who knew if he could ever repeat gaining the ear of Stewart 'Stoick' Haddock, Owner of Haddock Industries, Holder of the Haddock Estate, Head and Commander-in-Chief of the Haddock Rescue Services ever again.

So he'd hide Toothless in the huge (strangely invisible from bird's eye view) Cove and go over his notes while hammering out the mess he made of Toothless's navigations.

* * *

7\. Power

He found the cockpit.

There was a cockpit.

To be fair, Toothless was equally as startled when Hiccup fell _into_ his 'head'. But there was a cockpit. And a switch that set itself to 'free-roam' on the navigation panel.

Other than the green-tinged screens in front of Hiccup, there was a predominance of the colour red. (Why red anyway?)

"Hey Toothless?"

[Yeah?]

"I'm going to switch you over to manual control".

[What?]

"Ready?"

[Hiccup! Don't!]

Hiccup flipped the switch, and then the largely complicated, confusing dashboard and control panel faded away. It was as if the systems inside were repurposing itself for his use. All that was left was a floating black with glowing red detailing orb.

"Hmmm…"

[Hiccup, what did you just do?]

"Not sure actually, but if I can give you back your flight –"

[I've said it once, I'll say it again. Yes, I miss flying but it's not that baa…]

Hiccup placed his hands on the orb, and Toothless _flew_.

...

"THAT WAS AMAZING!"

[So that's what that's for!]

"Huh?"

Hiccup had basically fallen stylishly out of the cockpit without injuring himself – also, he might have been on a bit of an adrenaline high. (He was surprisingly more durable and agile these day, not that he noticed it). Now he lay back on the grass staring  
up at Toothless, who had for some reason only now decided to reveal that he could, indeed become smaller (more the size of a car than a six storey building).

Toothless stared down at him.

[That data file I found a while back remember?]

"Back in the first week of knowing each other?"

This was basically week eight of let's try to fix Toothless, his birthday (one of the few, actual ones he would get) had come and gone without much fanfare and the final exams for the year were drawing ever closer.

[Yeah. The data file was entitled Riders.]

"And you said it didn't seem important."

Toothless's response was to 'barf' up something.

"Oh, eww. Toothless!"

[At least I do not bring up the items I intake as fuel.] Toothless 'said' as he nosed the item over.

"What do you intake as fuel?"

[I don't know. Anyway, here.]

Hiccup looked at the badge-pin-clip thing.

"You want me to accessorise my bag." He deadpanned.

[No. I want you to say, 'Saddle Up' and then 'Night Fury'.]

"Um. No."

[Humour me.]

"I would but I have an anatomy lab tomorrow and I haven't prepped for it yet."

[What are you here for then? Go! Go!] Toothless said, hurriedly headbutting Hiccup towards the pickup.

"Alright! I'm going!" said Hiccup as he climbed into the vehicle, sliding the badge-thing onto his satchel strap while muttering "Pushy, overprotective reptile."

[I heard that. But Hiccup?]

"Yeah?" He replied as he turned the ignition?

[Promise me that you'll try it out when you're in danger?]

"Sure."

...

In danger came about seventeen hours later.

A dragon attack happened. (A somewhat regular occurrence.) _'She'_ (as Toothless called her) sent in the Terrible Terror zords in droves. (A very irregular occurrence).

Terrible Terrors were not the largest dragonzords. At normal zord size, they were the size of an average man. Because of this, they apparently were not deployed very often. The armed forces could take the one or two groups that appeared hand-to-hand if  
they came.

Civilians didn't usually have to worry about the Terrors. But today, they _swarmed_ the city of Berk.

Hiccup had the misfortune of being in a 'safe' zone that turned out to be a danger zone. (It was the green lung of the coastal region, people rarely chose to run there because they rather not take their chances in a forest.)

There was something like a battalion of Terrors making their way through the woods. There was no way Hiccup was going to be able to sneak away.

His face fell into his hands.

"Great, just great." He muttered to himself as his watch gently 'clicked' against something as his hands fell to his sides. The badge-pin-clip thing. He had for some reason had jammed it onto his belt.

He pulled it off the loop of his and looked at it. It had a deep red background and a rendition of Toothless on it (red detailing and green eye and all). Shrugging he raised the badge to the sky and decided to add his own 'Hiccup'-flair to the words Toothless  
told him to speak.

"Saddle up! It's morphin' time!"

Then all he saw was red.

...

The one who hungered could see what the zords under her control saw and hear what they heard.

Which was why she had sent so many of the Terrors into Berk. One of her most valuable assets had been operational, but not under control for months. The same amount of time she had been (with great risk of losing control of those assets) sending her dragonzords  
deeper and deeper inland to search for the Night Fury.

But she couldn't risk going any deeper with anything but the Terrors. They had the simplest security system to bypass and so could go deeper inland.

So when a man, fully clad in red burst through the undergrowth in front of one of her battalions and yelled "Night Fury!" she startled.

And for the first time in a long time, felt fear.

His helmet bore a high resemblance to her missing Night Fury.

...

Hiccup was actually, a little confused. He could only really tell two things about the situation.

One. He was wearing a helmet (which was feeding him information about the Terrors, what strategies were best for the situation, etc.)

Two. The (he was going to stick with badge) badge had inexplicably changed his outfit. All he could tell about that (from the little he could see of himself without glancing down) was that he had black gauntlets and gold gloves on. And a lot, _a lot_ of  
red.

The thought came to him that he was very, very screwed. This led him to the third thing that he could tell about the situation.

He did not stand a chance against them.

That was of course, until he realised that he somehow dodged a punch from a Terror. After that, he stopped thinking too hard and let the power coursing through him work. It was all instinct. (And a whole lot of luck).

The number of terrors slowly dwindled (what Hiccup didn't know was that _she_ had been slowly funnelling Terrors from around the city towards him, and she was running out of Terrors to throw at him). But the number he faced grew.

Instinct once again caused him to raise his right arm and call for a "Bow Guard!"

Red light formed around his arm and formed a shield. Hefting it up (Hiccup was getting used to not being surprised anymore at what he was doing), he yelled "Guard Toss!"

The shield was still solid, but regained its red glow. He wrenched his arm forward in a throw and watched as the shield gained speed, becoming a red streak of light as it smashed quickly into all the remaining Terrors, wrecking them.

Hiccup sighed and ran away, hoping that there were no more.

...

Despite having had to take the bus to where he was during the attack (as it was a good fifty kilometres away), after a ten minute sprint he found himself at the Cove where Toothless hid. He was still dressed in whatever getup the badge put him into.

And he was freaking out.

"Toothless? Bud? I need to talk to you!"

There was no response. Hiccup would have worried if he didn't spy the signs of Toothless being in the middle of a sleep cycle.

"How do I get this off?" He asked himself, "I need to power down."

The red glow surrounded him again and he blinked. He could feel the slight chill of the last bit of winter, soothing on his flushed face.

"That's it? Power down?"

Hiccup stared at the badge (which had reappeared on his belt).

"My life has gotten infinitely more complicated hasn't it?"

* * *

 **AN:** **So thoughts?**

 **Didya enjoy it? (If you are a 90s Kid I hope you understand bits of it). Also, I drew pictures of Hiccup in his morphed Power Ranger form and the badge/pin that is his morpher.**

 **It's on PRHTTYD dot tumblr dot com.**

 **Also, tomorrow I'm uploading what basically is an essay on why I crossed them over. So there's that to look forward to... Ask me stuff about the AU over there! I'll be glad to share my thoughts on these Rangers (and to explain a bit more lore if you want it).**


	2. In Which Hiccup Tries to Cope

**AN:**

 **So... My brainfart expanded.**

 **What to do, what to do.**

 **I have an assignment due... FML.**

 **Instead what I have is the following series of drabbles and my series of essays on how to make the Power Rangers AU for HTTYD work.**

 **AND BELIEVE ME THERE'S A LOT! It's all over on PRHTTYD dot tumblr dot com btw.**

 **Also, on the tumblr is pics of zord!Toothless and the designs for the Ranger suits.**

* * *

 **In Which Hiccup Tries to Cope.**

 **Or**

 **Exposition Time!**

* * *

1\. Discipline

Discipline was not really Hiccup's thing. That was, of course before he decided he wanted to become a doctor (for the sole purpose of later going into _research_ ). Then he _needed_ to discipline himself – at least in some things.

So suddenly needing to _discipline_ his _thoughts_ (oh come on, they were _his_ thoughts, besides the connection was pretty one-way, from them to him), was somewhat jarring.

It was not as if he wanted to _overhear_ things, he just did. (And he'd much rather get through medical school without _cheating_ thank-you-very-much… duringexam!Hiccup will hate current!Hiccup so much).

Also, there was this whole thing about the right to _confidentiality_ that was being breached. His fellow colleagues (medical students really) had patients (well, the subject of family study projects) too. It wasn't _professional_.

So he had to discipline himself.

He looked up some martial art videos, checked over their philosophy and thus armed, attempted to 'build a wall' in his mind so that thoughts wouldn't leak through all the time. He practiced over and over till it was voice-free in his mind. (Then he went and enrolled himself in a class, because having a teacher is easier than going at it himself).

Of course, then he had to figure out how to let people back _in_. (Toothless had practically ripped up the ground trying to communicate when he realised the guy repairing him could not 'hear' his computations any longer).

* * *

2\. Changes

Astrid Hofferson used to (may still, I-don't-know-it's-confusing) be disappointed in Hiccup.

Astrid Hofferson used to be best friends with Hiccup. (She still doesn't quite know what happened. One day Hiccup was her friend, and then one day Hiccup was _Hiccup_ , and then Hiccup shot up and suddenly was Hot!cup (not that the oblivious boy knew it – also apparently because he was just that unassuming, nobody noticed that he had become _that_ , even admittedly still skinny). But sometime between Primary and Sixth Form, Hiccup had just – drifted away.)

(Astrid remembers the one week in Secondary when he may have tried to take interest in what the rest of their old gang did, and maybe prove himself along the way. She remembers him joining them for that one week in the Juniour Rescue Scouts, but at the end of that week Gobber had lost two limbs and Astrid had lost he chance to possibly reconnect.)

Astrid was utterly confused by Hiccup.

First he decided to go into medicine (it blindsided her and she wondered if he remembered their old conversations about what they wanted to be when they grew up; she had just picked medicine because it was the hardest sounding thing with the stiffest sounding competition from what her complaining older cousin said, and she was just _too stubborn_ to back down).

Then he started not sucking at it (somehow his personal statement and grades didn't mean that earlier this year he hadn't been practically _carried_ by the rest of his groupmates in the group assignments. That changed briefly during the epidermis histology tutorial).

Then he joined her Wǔ Xíng class.

She had never taken him for someone who would ever join a martial art class. He was more the type that would sarcastically snark back at his attackers than the type that would defend himself when it came to it.

Colour her curious.

She actually walked up to him one day to just compliment him on getting out more (it felt like it had been forever since he showed his face for more than an hour after class on campus), and he had startled. Nervously stumbling back and stuttering at her about meditation being soothing and stress relief for medicine (honestly, how was this guy even _getting_ through OSCEs? Did he just stutter at the simulated patients till they took pity on the poor boy? But the stress relief thing – she _got_. Medicine either made you straight-up crazy, or you learnt to handle the crazy. If first year Michaelmas exams were anything to go by, her particular method of killing punching bags was working).

A change had-or-maybe-was happening. She just could not put her finger on _what_.

* * *

3\. Resources

Sending nearly half of her newly-awakened, inexperienced Terrors to attack a morphed Ranger was a bad idea.

To be fair she didn't expect a Ranger to show up, much less the _red_.

It was supposed to be a _scouting_ mission, a search for the missing Night Fury dragonzord that was entrusted to her, and she lost.

This was bad.

There were only so many dragonzords under her control in her Island. She had a finite source of minions to work with. She couldn't just throw her entire army at Berk.

(Well, she could. But she knew the damage humans could cause the dragonzords. Of course their bullets and rounds and EMPs could not breech the dragonzord hulls, but the part of the zords that answered to technology and not magic could still be affected. Thankfully her magic retrieved the fallen zords before the humans could take them apart – but there was only so far her magic could extend, a dead zord is a dead zord. Dead zords don't come back… She had been _very_ lucky in the past.)

She had learnt her lesson about _that_ the first attack she led on _stubborn_ , _stubborn_ Berk twenty-three years ago.

She needed to be smart about this. (There were _reasons_ why she only sent out one or two major dragonzord(s) at a time. She couldn't afford to lose her hard hitters.)

She learnt her lesson (the remains of a Cloudjumper, Timberjack, Thunderdrum and Boneknapper rested at the bottom of her volcano lair in the island. That was four corrupted major dragonzords less in her army).

Oh she still had plenty.

But there was only so much she could do while trying to manage her resources (she had a job to do).

* * *

4\. Reasons

He was not necessarily unhappy with the Red Death. He could play the long game.

Yes they had conquered a fourth of the Archipelago.

Yes they probably should focus their efforts elsewhere. But there were reasons why they had not chosen to do so.

The Archipelago had the highest concentrations, well pools if you will, of two semi-magic elements known as Drakonip and Drakoroot. This was what they were using (in part) to control their corrupted dragonzords. They had quite a bit of the rare element, but not enough to turn their forces elsewhere.

Red Death had reported in that there was a certain range that they could project their magic through the elements, once the range ended, the control did too. They had to be _careful_. He needed to stay further back while she led the forward charge (and to be fair, over the twenty-five years that they had been doing this they had slowly and steadily gained ground till they reached _Berk_ , where they still were gaining ground – just much, _much_ more slowly) to keep the slumbering dragonzords there under their control.

The Red Death wore a choker that wove the two elements together. She might have been his Third-in-Command, but despite her rank – she was definitely saner than his Second. They had mutually agreed to leave the power to corrupt and control the dragonzords to the two of them.

Dagur had enough power. And even dark magic needed _some_ semblance of order to prevent utter catastrophe.

He wanted to _conquer and rule_ the world. That was hard to do if the world was destroyed.

…

People don't really bother to look at what the dragonzords are doing when they attack. But once Hiccup had Toothless, things became a lot clearer.

The attacks always had two fronts. One was the normal, usual attacks that came in via the coast. The second was more of an epicentre of a random spot.

"So… You're telling me that that is basically where random magical stuff is found and whoever _she_ is, is using it to control you guys?"

[Basically, yeah.]

"Why here?"

[I dunno. New at this too.]

"Gosh I wish we had more answers… Now are you sure you can't go any smaller?"

* * *

5\. Purpose

The first time Hiccup morphed was because he was scared and in danger.

The second time Hiccup morphed was because he was scared, in danger and _curious_.

Toothless apparently _was_ able to go smaller, (keychain sized actually) which was convenient because then Hiccup could take him around places and not worry that the giant dragonzord would be found prowling around the Berk Reserves.

Hiccup leaned around the corner of which he ducked behind. There was another attack (what's new about that?) but unlike the last time (last time referring to the last time he got caught in one), there weren't scores of Terrors all around. Just a single group.

And they had driven one of the weird pipe-things that were left behind sometimes when there were attacks into the ground.

[So. You gonna morph?]

Hiccup glanced at the tiny Night Fury. His eyes swept his surroundings for cameras and the like and then he whispered.

"Saddle up, its morphin' time!"

The red-ness swept over him once again. It felt like fire and crackles of electricity (that didn't hurt). It felt like _power_.

With instinct that was mostly _power_ and part newly-developing skill, he threw a backflip and _pounced_ into the group of Terrors and snarled.

"Night Fury."

The Terrors scattered as he ripped the pipe-thing out of the ground with the strength that came from the _power_ coursing through him. Breaking the web-thing that was forming from the pipe-thing (he really needed to ask Toothless about what those were – if Toothless even recalled what those were).

Something screeched overhead but Hiccup paid it no mind. He could deal with it later.

"Bow Guard!" he yelled out, calling for the random shield that appeared the last time. Again, there was a swath of red light and the weapon formed around his arm.

The Terrors advanced.

Hiccup swung his shield at the first Terror that approached him, bashing it in the muzzle. He whirled around and caught the one approaching him from behind across the torso.

The _power_ gave him a nudge and he leapt high above a third Terror, grasping it by the shoulders and rolling, lifting his shield above his head to block the blaze of fire that came his way.

Rising up, out of his crouch, Hiccup let power build through his arm, focusing it on his shield as it once again glowed red.

"Guard Toss."

And hefted it at the remaining Terrors.

In the seconds it took for the shield to boomerang back to him, Hiccup finally was able to catch a glimpse of his appearance. (He looked like a bad Deadpool reject – even if the helmet resembled Toothless. Oh well.)

But there was no time for continued contemplations over his random costume. The screech that he ignored turned more into a _roar_ and it was coming closer (oh no what should he do!).

[She's like me.]

"What?" Hiccup hissed back to his miniature dragonzord, trusting that he would hear him above all the racket.

[She's like me. That's a Deadly Nadder!]

"But you just said that… _that's_ like you! How are you alike? I mean, we get like a dozen of these that show up at the coast. All of them blue. All of them deadly."

[Hence the name Deadly Nadder.] Toothless deadpanned. [But what I mean is that she's a major dragonzord – like me. See how she's much, much bigger when you compare her to the other Nadders?]

"You think you can break her out of it."

[Only one way to find out!]

The _power_ flowed through Hiccup as he bellowed to the sky.

"DRAGON CALL!"

Hiccup could vaguely see waves of red pulse out of his mouth as the echo of Toothless's call rang through the air.

Speaking of the Night Fury dragonzord, he had flown directly upwards into the air, as fast as he could manage. As Toothless reached the stratosphere, the red glow expanded his body to its original size.

Toothless could hear _her_ siren song again. But the bond he had with Hiccup was letting him push it back – somewhat.

[Hiccup! Help!]

Hiccup jumped up. Somehow landing on top of Toothless's head and dropping down immediately into the cockpit. He sunk his glowed hands into the 'control ball' and Toothless's red detailing glowed even brighter.

"Rider Online!"

[Thank goodness. _She_ was in my head again.]

"Is _she_ gone now?"

[Yeah. But now, we got to snap her out of it.]

"You got it Bud."

Hiccup's eyes narrowed behind the visor, yelling "Fury Bomb!" as Toothless swirled himself into a dive bomb.

The Night Fury slammed against the Nadder, and before it could hit any of the buildings or infrastructure, Hiccup had already launched himself out of the cockpit. The instinct fuelled by the _power_ causing him to jump the gap between the two dragonzords.

The minute he landed on the Nadder, it-well-Toothless-said-it-was-a-she gained extensive _yellow_ detailing, much like how Toothless had gained the red detailing. Her screech died out as she seemed reorient herself.

The reprieve lasted a scant three minutes.

Luckily for Hiccup, he had managed to launch himself back into Toothless' cockpit. The minute the Nadder seemed to lose whatever internal battle against whatever the force was, they were there.

"Plasma Blast!"

Hiccup's command was followed shortly after with a neon lavender blast that exploded out of the Night Fury's mouth. It knocked the Nadder towards the Berk Forest reserve.

And then all was quiet.

* * *

6\. Support

When Stewart 'Stoick' Haddock first heard of the Dragon fighting the other dragon (and the random Deadpool-esque hero fighting the smaller ones), everyone waited for him to explode.

Everyone forgot that Stoick was capable of being infuriatingly reasonable.

Stoick laughed instead.

"If someone has managed to _tame_ one of those beasts. And is taking them down for us, should we be complaining?"

* * *

 **AN:**

 **What do you think?**

 **Remember there will be headcanons!, pictures and stuff being posted on the tumblr -** **PRHTTYD dot tumblr dot com** **. (Shameless advertising, I know). Also, one of my headcanons is that Stoick can be infuriatingly reasonable, but people tend to forget that so often that it comes at a surprise.**

 **People forget that he _has_ to be reasonable. He's basically King of Berk *winks*, he has to deal with logistics and stuff. AND DIPLOMACY.**

 **Being reasonable is kinda a requirement for diplomacy.**

 **(Also, I crossposted this. It's on AO3 now too...)**


	3. In Which Astrid Joins the Party

**AN:** **Okay, so I might have a fully developing AU on my hands... If you like it let me know! Also for more about lore and stuff in this AU, head on over to PRHTTYD dot tumblr dot com!**

* * *

 **In Which Astrid Joins the Party**

* * *

1\. Dash

Now and then Astrid tired of killing punching bags. (She had already tried that. But when you had an assignment due, and you had a writer's block…)

That was when she took to the reserve (she loved being a Haddock Scholar at times). You see, normally people didn't come by in the spring. The extensive Haddock Grounds normally closed a few days before Christmas and only opened again at the beginning of summer. This allowed the wildlife time to replenish itself (so fresh game season in restaurants were always from mid-Septemberish to midwinter), and to generally upkeep the area and allow the effects of the public on the various forests/mountains/caves of the grounds to wear off a little.

Astrid's father once commented that it didn't use to always be that way.

Around thirty years ago, Stoick met Valka. Before that, the Haddock grounds were basically open whenever to whoever (because the Haddocks were the only people with enough money to somewhat half-heartedly maintain it without the citizens of the Skǫrmargr-ørviti County forking out something like ninety percent of their income for the tax to upkeep that (which is pretty much why the Archipelago mainly left the Haddock grounds, the Mikmillfang grounds, the Renavit grounds and the Slatrhann grounds alone of the five counties… Wow the Haddocks got the short end of the name stick). After meeting Valka, Stoick cut access to the grounds off for a year.

(They said that during that year, around the six month mark, Stoick brought Valka into the grounds to propose).

Twenty-nine years ago Stoick re-opened the grounds to the public and the sustainable hunters (which, the hunting society of Berk was already honestly) with the rules it had today. The only exceptions to the rule were the Haddocks and their Scholars.

The Haddock Scholarship had a history that was almost as old as the University of Berk itself. The only thing more prestigious was the Berk Scholarship – but honestly, Astrid was kind of glad that she didn't get that.

The Berk Scholarship provided you with free tuition, text/revision books and stationary allowance, an actual allowance and free accommodation – as well as first pick of any research opportunities. Berk Scholars also got to go _places_ on break. But all those perks came with a price. You had to consistently stay within the top fifteen percentiles, regardless of exceptional circumstances. And you had to be a part of one of the university sports teams. And wort of all… You became the University's poster student.

Astrid knew she was pretty. But she didn't want her face planted all over the city.

Nor did she want to represent the University in interviews, or walk around the campus on Open Day as a glorified tour guide.

The Haddock Scholarship didn't give as much as the Berk (it was nearly identical really, free tuition, accommodation and an allowance as well as first consideration if you entered Haddock Industries – no vacations though… and you had to buy your own stationary and textbooks. The thing about medicine? There were _hundreds_ of textbooks (or at least it felt like it). There were _thousands_ of revision books. And they were _very, very expensive_ – maybe she should have accepted the Berk Scholarship she was offered after all…), but it did offer more freedom and different perks – like the one she was exploiting right now.

The Haddock grounds were gated and only accessible through two means, the Haddock residence (it was _literally_ their backyard) and the public gate (which normally was closed this time of year). Unless you happened to have an access card (which she did).

Astrid's second method of stress relief was plain old running. And the Haddock grounds offered the best varied terrain in Skǫrmargr-ørviti County.

So there Astrid was, fleeting pounding away at the ground as she took her normal route up through the mountains. Dipping here and there to avoid the occasional low branch.

That was when she saw _it_.

There was a flash of blue and yellow. Now, Astrid was a girl who prided herself (apart from her occasional _stubborn_ spots where it was overridden) on her common sense, and her ability to make use of it. So she told herself it was probably another Haddock Scholar out and about this particular mid-March morning.

Except, it was rather big for a person.

And beyond the trees just in front of her, was a cliff. So, logically, that was not a human.

Normally at this point, people would start screaming and running away. But there's that special group of people (who pop out every now and then during certain times) that instead of running away from the potential danger, go towards it.

Astrid never thought that this would be the time that became her.

…

Hiccup was groaning.

So he had something like a week before a deadline and maybe he had procrastinated hard core on the final assignment for the year, but to be fair having a patient with multiple sclerosis was no walk in the park. It was a good thing he had photocopied his partner's notes from the visits because if he didn't, well, he would have nothing to go on.

Also, he would have had his normal two weeks of frantic writing, but no.

He had spent a week trying to calm the Deadly Nadder down (apparently, there was a difference, the smaller ones are just Nadders). But no, she wouldn't. She just stormed around the grounds in a bossy, uppity manner. (Toothless had apparently explained _some_ things to her though – weird clothes-changing things that is).

Toothless would have been with him in his room (key-chained sized of course) while he banged his head against the keyboard trying to piece the puzzle that was the family study together.

How was he supposed to start writing about how multiple sclerosis affected the family anyways? 'The children believe that it's their fault because they love to rough-house with their dad, despite the fact their father and the medical team often remind them that the condition has little to do with trauma'? Nope. He's not doing that. Nope.

In an attempt to remove the block and end his procrastination, Hiccup had chosen to go to the Cove. Toothless was currently bothering the _Deadly_ Nadder (note to self, never just address her by Nadder again, she _will_ screech).

He sighed and closed his laptop, plopping it into his backpack.

"Toothless! I'm heading back!"

[Wait up!]

The dragonzord pounced happily over to Hiccup, halfway through the pounce this red detailing glowed so bright it obscured his form. When the red glow cleared, the Night Fury was down to key-chain sized again. Hiccup caught him and brought him up close to a ring, where Toothless hung himself upside down by the tail.

"Ready?"

[Sssssh… Nap time.]

It wasn't five minutes later when Astrid Hofferson slammed into him, apparently freaking out.

…

It was a dragon.

There was a _dragon_ in the Haddock grounds. Did they know about this?

It looked like a Nadder. And it felt like it was made of metal – but it was warm and oddly humming underneath her hand. (Oh wait, yes – _she touched the dragon_ ).

Astrid actually stood in shock for a couple of minutes before a decidedly female voice said.

[Hands. Off. The fuselage.]

That was when she repressed a scream and ran for dear life. Or at least tried to, when she slammed into six foot one of Haddock male.

…

"Dragon!"

Astrid blurted out. Hiccup caught her around the shoulders and raised a brow. Saying,

"Excuse me?"

Now, you see, Hiccup had been trying to carry a polite conversation with the Deadly Nadder for a week. So he let her thoughts through the mental shield. So when he heard…

[You get back here young lady!]

He wasn't expecting Astrid to flinch back and practically yell in his ear

"WHY IS SHE TALKING?! WHY CAN THEY TALK?!"

"Astrid! Calm down!"

"WHO ARE YOU ASKING TO BE CALM? I AM CALM!"

This was of course, ruined by the fact the huge dragonzord showing up behind Astrid and sighing

[There you are, now can we talk?]

"You're a Nadder! What are you doing in the Haddock grounds?!"

[ _Deadly_ Nadder actually, but I was hoping…]

"GAAAAHHHH!"

Astrid broke away from Hiccup's hold and ran. Hiccup sighed.

"Did you have to chase after her that way?"

[Well, I'm sorry. I'm just excited that I've found my Rider so quickly!]

[Quiet…] Toothless mumbled sleepily, [Nap time, no shouty time…]

The larger-at-the-time dragonzord and human sighed.

"I'm going to go after her. It was confusing enough figuring it out alone."

[Give her these then. She might need them.]

A bright yellow glow shot out of the dragonzord's mouth. Leaving a badge similar to his on the ground, only it was yellow. And had her drawn onto it.

"Ok. I'll go catch up to her."

It was a testament to the _power_ now thrumming through Hiccup's body that he could catch up with Astrid despite her having a five minute head start.

…

"Astrid!"

Astrid didn't pause, didn't break her stride. The gates of the grounds were about ten minutes away now, if she could continue to _book_ it, then she should be far enough away from the _dragon_. Also, now that her adrenaline was wearing off, she was starting to feel woozy.

"Astrid! Just wait up!"

Good, just what she needed.

"What Hiccup?"

"Are you okay?"

"Well, considering that the Haddocks are _hiding_ a dragon in their grounds – I'm absolutely _grand_."

"Look Astrid. It's not what you think, and I'm rather worried for you."

"Or are you worried about what the Country is going to do to you when they find out the oh-so-great Haddocks are the ones attacking them."

"Where's your proof?"

"I don't know," She gestured wildly behind him in the relative direction they came from, "that dragon perhaps?"

"That's the shock talking. And that's not good practice."

"What?"

"Having suspicions is one thing, but you must have proof before you act upon you suspicions. Otherwise that's not good practice and you're just making assumptions about a dragon army."

"Oh don't bring good practice into this…"

"THINK Astrid! You've been here several times! Have you ever seen signs of a dragon being around before?"

…

Astrid hated to admit it, but common sense was kicking in again. Hiccup was telling the truth (that bit she didn't know how she knew, just that he was). She _had_ noticed changes during her run, one that only a very, very large animal/ building falling could make.

She stopped.

Hiccup sighed. (He looked good in red. Why was he wearing red?)

"Look, I can't really explain it now, but let me explain tomorrow?"

She didn't know why (it felt like such a mood, no a change of mind, whiplash. Surely she wasn't that easy to convince right?) but she trusted him. Also, she felt faint and fatigued.

"Just… Take this with you okay? And if you start hearing voices in your head – don't freak out."

She took it. (She couldn't even tell what it was).

* * *

2\. Perception

Well, she wasn't hearing voices in her head.

No. Astrid was noticing things.

Like, how did no one notice that Hiccup's old varied wardrobe had somehow morphed into mainly red. Like today for example. Red T-shirt with a darker red (with two different tones of green checkers patterned onto it) over-shirt and jeans.

And that the Wǔ Xíng class (and whatever else he was doing) was paying off.

Hiccup used to be skinny, now he was _lean_ – or beginning to get there anyways. And there was something else there too, something that was making him straighten up, just a little. Something that was making him present his portion of the groupwork a little more confidently (maybe she should ask for a group transfer – didn't someone drop out of his group? She kept on having to replace her class in his slot aways). She didn't even think he noticed it.

No one else did.

Hiccup, kept on giving her these weird looks throughout the day, like he was afraid everything in his mind would come spilling out. Or someone else's mind. He gave her weird suggestions like

"Get a song stuck in your head."

And also,

"Want some music?" While holding out one side of his earphones for her to listen to – strains of rock music quietly floating out of the speaker. (Funny, she never took him for a rock person).

The strangest part was that he seemed genuinely concerned. And that he was right.

She pretty much collapsed on her bed the night before. (Leaving the shower till the next morning – she regretted that). But, waking up this morning was weird.

Her milk had mysteriously gone down in level from last night. But this time, (after glancing around the kitchen to look at the fourteen other sleepy girls who made up her flatmates) she _knew_ who did it. She took her bottle and walked up to her ready to scold her when some things about the girl lept out at her.

A trip to the common room later and the matter was settled.

That was just the first incident. But from then forward she just could not help _noticing_ things. And what was worse was that she didn't know how to turn it off.

So when the alarms blared in the city-centre, signalling a dragon attack (it was Friday, and grocery day, and Hiccup apparently did groceries). She _saw_ Hiccup sneaking away towards an alley.

While everyone else rushed to a shelter. She saw a projection of something emanating off the weird-badge-pin-thing of Hiccup's and she followed him there.

* * *

3\. Alliance

Hiccup was not amused.

The Terror's apparently went after the same spot, _again_. Maybe it was the closest one to the coast? (Wait it was. Never mind.)

But apparently it was supposed to be a 'stealth' mission (hence the lack of dragonzords apart from the Terrors). He figured that he could handle it without the fancy suit.

He struck.

…

So.

Apparently the Shifu had recommended Hiccup practice the way of the Panther. He didn't look the type, but she could see how it worked with him. Hiccup was all lithe moment and pouncing strength – unexpected strength. He took on _dragons_ without the protection the Archipelago soldiers had.

(What was he suicidal?)

But there was an undercurrent of _power_ here. And every now and then he threw a comment to the keychain hanging from his belt (come to think of it; that happened pretty often today too) and turned. But no, there was an undercurrent of _power_ and Hiccup needed help.

…

Astrid landed on the Terror just behind him in a rush of yellow and blue. (Did she even notice that she picked out those colours?)

…

Hiccup, for a beginner, fought really, really well.

But all that changed when a rumble sounded overhead.

It was a Gronckle. But it was a much bigger Gronckle than the usual Gronckles that appeared on the coast.

Astrid spied a small smile on Hiccup's face as he grabbed the badge-pin-thing off his belt and raised it high into the air, crying –

"Saddle up, it's morphin' time!"

A bright, bright flash of red engulfed him – and then Astrid grew surprised when he emerged in some Deadpool-esque suit (with a helmet in place of the usual mask). Nope. What made her surprised was that the suit was utterly messing with her vision. She knew Hiccup, she could see Hiccup's general form. But it kept fluxing. One minute he was his normal, tall self. The next he appeared her height. One minute he appeared to be super muscular (which actually did not work on Hiccup), and the next he appeared like his usual self. It just wasn't steady enough for her to tell.

"Astrid. I have no clue what's happened – and that Deadly Nadder and Toothless will have to explain later, but trust me?"

Astrid nodded.

"Then raise your badge to the sky and trust that the power will protect you."

It was funny, despite everything Astrid noticed today, she forgot about the random badge-pin-thing she had apparently placed on her bag. Unpinning it she did as Hiccup said – and was engulfed in yellow.

It ended.

She yelled out "Deadly Nadder!"

* * *

 **AN:** **Yes, a cliffhanger. Yes I'm rotten.**

 **Let me know what you think! And... (shameless self-plug) remember to head on over to PRHTTYD dot tumblr dot com !**


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